‘Tweet’ is now an official word in the Oxford English Dictionary

In the latest sign that social media is changing the way we speak and behave, the Oxford English Dictionary announced the inclusion of the definition of the word “tweet” in its latest update.

John Simpson, the dictionary’s chief editor, said “tweet” was added despite not having yet been used for 10 years, which is one rule the dictionary considers before adding a new word. But as Simpson says, the word “seems to be catching on.”

The Oxford English Dictionary officially defines “tweet” as “a posting made on the social networking service Twitter” and as a verb, it is defined as “to post on Twitter.”

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But “tweet” wasn’t the only tech word included in the dictionary’s June update.

The Oxford English Dictionary also added definitions for “big data,” meaning “computing data of a very large size”; “crowdsourcing,” which is defined as “the practice of obtaining information or services by soliciting input from a large number of people”; and “e-reader,” which is a tablet device used for digital books.

Other words added include “mouseover,” which of course is when you move your computer mouse toward an object on the screen; “redirect,” which is when a URL takes you from one Web page to another; and “stream,” which is when you transfer data from the Internet to a device.

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